Inner-Urban Landscapes of Athens

 

Inner-urban landscape is understood as the entire reference space within a city, which addresses the public realm and is thus vital for all life processes that go beyond the private sphere and influence the everyday life in the public sphere.

The goal of this research project is to explore inner-urban landscapes as a spatial phenomenon – or urban quality – and to create an interdisciplinary network of professionals, organisations and citizens. Aiming to produce novel and relevant knowledge, enable informed participation, promote and disseminate Inner-urban landscapes so as to contribute directly to the processes of urban renewal. The research project will examine the city of Athens as a case study, because Athens contains a remarkable continuous historical span, with economic prosperities and crises, rapid growth and fundamental societal changes. All these past and current processes are traceable in its inner-urban landscape.

A series of lectures, seminars, design studios, publications and public projects developed from 2020 to 2022 by the Chair of Sustainable Urbanism of the Department of Architecture at the Technical University of Munich, in collaboration with the School of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens, the Gennadius Library of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. The project is supported by the Schwarz Foundation.

The first round of seminars with students from the Architecture Μ.A. at the TUM has been completed and next steps involve a round-table in Athens with experts from different fields to contribute to the subject. The key findings and moments of the research project will be exhibited in Athens, published and encourage further collaborations with network partners for further projects.